Silversprings House, 20 Quay Road, AKA 20 Silverspring, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6ED

Silversprings House is a well-maintained Cape Dutch style house built in 1929, retaining practically all of its original detailing and built-in fittings. Though the property has lost its larger garden due to subsequent development on the site, its original conception can be appreciated through the survival of the original gatehouse, now numbered 22 Quay Road.

The house is a two-storey, three-bay-wide structure with a south-east front displaying symmetrical composition. Its most distinctive feature is a convex canted breakfront, which projects beyond the general façade. This breakfront is crowned with a curvilinear gable with freely interpreted scrolls linked by a horizontal moulded stringcourse that frames a single double-hung sliding sash two-pane window. Above sits a moulded segmental pediment. The breakfront is flanked by double-hung sliding sash two-pane windows with panelled sash boxes. At ground floor on each side of the breakfront are tripartite windows with double-hung sliding sash two-pane lights, with matching single dormers above breaking the eaves line and cornice. The south-west entrance front is two bays wide, with the entrance set within a single-bay loggia supported by Tuscan columns on each side. A frieze and cornice with urns top the supports. Under the canopy sits a panelled entrance door with a sloped head and fanlight divided into eight small panes, featuring good ironmongery. To the left stands a double-hung sliding sash twenty-four-pane window with exposed sash boxes, echoing the theme of small panes in the fanlight. Above the entrance is a single double-hung sliding sash two-pane window-dormer. The north-east front displays a breakfront curvilinear gable with a four-bay return terminated by another curved gable. This gable, without scrolls or framing, has a tripartite ground window and a single double-hung sliding sash two-pane window above, topped with a segmental pediment. The return features four similar two-pane windows at ground and first-floor levels, with first-floor windows again breaking the eaves line. The two middle first-floor windows are coupled beneath a combined flat roof.

Throughout, the walls are roughcast rendered and painted white. The curvilinear gables form barge stops and kneelers to the roof, finished in greenish Westmoreland slates. The house has a double-pile back return of unequal lengths. Chimneys are set back on ridges of return roofs, are roughcast and painted white with tall red pots. Downpipes and metal gutters complete the external detailing. The rear elevation maintains the quality of detailing throughout, with an enclosing wall to a small rear yard.

The house was built for a Major and Mrs King. Major King had served in South Africa, and his wife was South African with considerable wealth. The house was designed by an officer colleague of Major King, though the drawings remain unsigned. The original gatehouse was built first, and the Kings resided there until the main house was completed. The house was subsequently occupied by a family called Fairley. The small estate was later purchased by Kennedy of Coleraine over a decade ago, who developed the site by altering the driveway and erecting detached houses with Silverstream as the central feature. The gatehouse is now retained as number 27 Quay Road. The present owner acquired the house eight years ago.

The property is situated on rising ground overlooking Quay Road with a well-laid-out garden practically surrounding the house, featuring mature trees to the rear and terraced gardens to the south-east. Recent development has encircled Silverspring with other houses, though this has been sensitively executed without enclosing hedges and Silverspring remains visually prominent within its setting. The house is located within Ballycastle Conservation Area.